Monday, October 1, 2012

Next Monday we will have a quiz on background knowledge on Canterbury Tales

Finish reading Beowulf, Cantos 12-17

In these cantos we see Beowulf become injured and Wiglaf kills Grendel out of loyalty to Beowulf.

In the battle between Grendel’s mother and Beowulf we see that Beowulf has to go down to hell to fight her while when he fought Grendel it was in a heaven like place.

His pride forces him to also want to fight Grendel’s mother. His pride also makes him bring Grendel’s head down into hell.

There are a lot of fate elements, when he kills a monster or is saved Beowulf credits fate. The Christian elements don’t seem to flow as much, like the monks went back a wove it in. One place it is seen is when Grendel’s mom can’t touch Beowulf in water because it symbolizes his baptism in christianity.

It shows his fight with the dragon is the end

The downfall is very symbolic, it shows the downfall of the Anglo-Saxon ideas, Beowulf’s followers deserting him also supports this idea